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Monday, January 18, 2010

Foggy

My Monday view: Foggy

Literally. It's foggy outside.

It's also a little foggy inside my head, too, because I'm still enjoying my first sips of coffee. Some new blend my live-in handyman bought. It's very good. But as the caffeine takes hold and my brain wakes up and joins me, the fog will gradually lift and the sun will return.

So with all this fog going on, I thought I'd chat about foggy writing.

Yesterday I had to go back to look for something in the first part of my manuscript. Some items had been placed in a box, and I needed to know what they were. Now - speaking of fog - you'd think I could remember this. But I wrote that bit before the holidays fried my last nerve.

If I kept an ongoing log, like I know some organized writers do, or started with a full outline, like some other organized writers, I could've looked it up. But that's way too easy.

So I scrolled back through the pages to the general area and found it. Wrote the items down on a bright pink stickie and slapped it on my desk right in front of the keyboard. I probably won't need it again, but if I do, I've got that sucker.

I digress. It's the fog.

But while I was a hundred or so pages in the past, I noticed a lot of foggy writing - assorted pronouns, wimpy verbs, adverbs trying to corrupt my real message. It was a muddled mess.

I knew these things were there because I put them there. I just didn't realize how much work I would have to do on second draft. If I can't think of the right word as I'm writing, I replace it with a pronoun that will do. Same with verbs. I move along.

But in that particular passage, the fog was darn thick and traffic was creeping along, flashers blinking.

My little foray back in time gave me a good heads-up on what I have in store next month. I just hope it's not so foggy I can't tell what I really meant.

But, the good news is...if you can't remember where you were going, you then have the opportunity to go wherever you want at that moment. Who needs a map when there are so many fun roads to take? Just don't get lost.

Well, i understand what you're saying, as I can't remember where I put my socks an hour ago. But try this... I'm editing a book that I wrote eleven YEARS ago. My editor asks, "What did you mean by...xyz?" Hey, I don't even recognize it as something I wrote! Not that's fog.

Oh, yes, I'm familiar with that morning fog and with foggy writing. If I'm not sure which word to use I either use slashes between choices or insert FIX in brackets. Then I know areas that need work later. Sometimes my critique partners get to choose which word works best. Galen---my goodness. I can't remember what or why I wrote something eleven weeks before!

Most advice folks say to just let it flow during first draft--"turn off that internal editor!" Sometimes I don't follow that advice, and I search in dictionary or on-line for a better word, or I look up the name of a restaurant in the town or city I'm writing about, and so forth. Other times the fire is so hot, I just put in three asterisks and search for them later. I guess it depends on my mood. In the end, I still have to go back and search and destroy overused words--I have a whole list of those. But I always say, the important thing is to get it down. Without doing at least that, there's nothing to work with. Good post!

I'm a 'fix as you go' writer, although the fixes are never enough. I still have to go back and make sure I've got good transitions, not too many overused words, or "foggy" words like 'something' or 'anything'.

Whenever the fog gets thick here at the Sea, the fog horn begins to make noises (should look that word up - what does a fog horn do? Bleat? Toot? Must edit later). Maybe that helps to remind you it`s a foggy day and you should rather go shopping?

Occasionally I read my drafts and I wonder what on earth I was thinking. I don't remember why I wrote a scene or what the characters were doing and I don't know why it is important. Usually that means the entire scene was waffle while I was wrapping my head around the next chapter and I can simply cut it straight out of the draft. Othertimes I need to do some good thinking about what the scene needs to do and start over.